Mini Coconut Blood Orange Bundt Cakes

Happy Valentine’s day!

My husband and I don’t usually do anything for Valentine’s day, but I hardly need an excuse to whip up something pink and pretty. These little cakes are made up of rich coconut cream and a little fresh blood orange juice. You can dip hot cakes into a blood orange syrup, or reduce the syrup and drizzle it over the cakes for serving. Fresh blood orange segments, supremed, compliment the sweet cakes perfectly. And hey, they’re pretty.

Blood oranges are the perfect fruit for winter desserts. Why use strawberries (or what are labeled strawberries in February in Boston), when you can use fresh, organic, blood oranges which happen to be in season right now? You can use regular oranges for this recipe as well, but blood oranges are just so gosh darn pretty.

The gorgeous color of the segments transfers easily to the syrup–so rich and crisp, a perfect, deep pink that’s perfect for Valentine’s day, don’t you think? The color inside a blood orange ranges from standard orange to dark red, sometimes you can even find both colors within one orange. The color inside is dependent upon light, temperature and variety. They usually look like regular oranges on the outside, but sometimes you can see a red blush creeping over the rind that tips you off.

*In warm weather, refrigerate a can of coconut milk until the cream floats to the top and solidifies. In cold weather, I just take it out of my pantry and it’s ready to go. Here’s a photo.

Preheat oven to 400º F. Grease a mini bundt cake pan.Whisk dry ingredients together. Whisk wet ingredients together in a separate bowl. Gently fold wet ingredients into dry until just combined. Fill each cup with 1/2 Cup of batter. Bake for 25-30 minutes, or until lightly browned on top. See below for soaking the cakes in syrup. Let cool for 10 minutes before removing from the pan. Let cool under plastic wrap to keep the outsides nice and soft.

So how about that blood orange syrup?

Blood Orange SyrupMakes about 1 Cup

1/2 Cup Sugar
1/2 Cup Water
1/4 Cup Blood Orange Juice, strained

Combine sugar and water boil until sugar is dissolved. Remove from heat and stir in juice. To make a thicker syrup, boil again until the sugar begins to expand greatly in volume (230º F, thread stage) then remove from heat.

You can re-heat it if needed before decorating the plates or the cakes.

You can soak the cakes in the thin version of the syrup for a moister cake. As soon as the cakes come out of the oven, poke them with a fork and pour 1/2 of the syrup evenly over the tops. Let sit for at least 10 minutes before unmolding. You can then thicken the leftover syrup for decoration.

thanks for reminding me that the blood orange season had started! i made blood orange and coconut muffins last year and it was such a nice combination, i’ll have to try these! the syrup looks gorgeous.

Sorry… ;) …I’ve just read the note. So I guess next time I buy it I will refrigerate it … as my coconut milks have never been naturally creamy as the one in your picture! I’m jealous! ;)
Thanks for the suggestion!

Your photos look great – very professional! I don’t think I’ve seen any blood oranges at our supermarket yet, so I guess they’ll be a little while longer getting to the UK, but I sure want to try these cakes
mmmmmm

Thanks to you I got to know about blood oranges. I recently bought a few without knowing they would be red inside so you can imagine my shock :D Back in India we don’t get such colours so obviously I was ignorant of its existence :)

You’ve given me a wonderful chance to try something with these oranges.

Lolo – Yes, it’s me again… the only person who screwed up EASY Seitan!! I tired the recipe again last night and ran into the same issue. Now I’m convinced that the nutritional yeast I bought is the problem. Oh well… eventually I’ll get it right…

Now, as for these beauties – your photography is just amazing. This is straight out of the pages of Gourmet magazine! I’m going to make these this weekend!! I’ve always drooled over mini bundt cakes, and now I have a vegan recipe!! Yay!

I made this tonight! Didn’t bake it in mini bundt pans (I don’t have any) so it didn’t look as cute as your do, but it was realllyyyy good! Thanks! I’ll have to keep coconut cream in mind as a sub for oil/EB.

When I made this I was so-so about it. Our friend had given up chocolate for lent so I made this, but secretly I was thinking “Who even likes non-chocolate cake?!?” This was amazing! It has become *the* cake people ask about the recipe. :)

I have these in the oven RIGHT NOW! I can’t wait till they are done. I am excited about this recipe because I haven’t seen a recipe like this that doesn’t use tofu in it. (I’m not a fan of tofu in my deserts)

Hi Lolo
I am wondering if lite coconut milk will work, that is all I have and is presently sitting in my freezer. Am I better off making a run to the store?????
thanks
By the way your blog rocks, I don’t even look at other sites any more.